The practice of gripping a baseball bat at a selected distance from its small or butt knob end portion is termed “choking up”, being a common practice among baseball players. The desire for the so-called “choking up” is primarily for having improved swing control that can be obtained with a heavier and broader bat. In essence, when a batter “chokes up” they grip the bat closer to its centroid or center of gravity, when this is done the moment arm distance between with where a batter grips the bat and the centroid of the bat is a smaller distance as compared to if they bat were gripped adjacent to the small or butt knob end of the bat, the end result of this is that due to the shorter distance moment arm the bat swinging force is reduced thus resulting in reduced muscular stress for the batter and facilitating a more controlled swing by the batter. Further, “choking up” helps prevent wrist twisting by the batter as the follow-through near the end of the bat swing has less momentum due to the shorter moment arm distance. A further use of “choking up” for the batter is to effectuate the practice of “bunting” the ball from a pitch, which is a controlled minimal swing contact with the baseball that useful in certain situations to advance the players on the bases. In addition, for articles other than baseball bats, for instance such as an industrial broom handle, or hockey stick, or other like items, a compression collar apparatus can work much the same way and that it provides a selectable axial stop upon the article for the user to grasp against. Further, for the axial stop which also has the benefit of allowing for a less compressive and less fatiguing hand grip by the user, as the user does not have to grip the article as firmly to help prevent axial movement of the article within the user's hands.
Wherein the key difficulties are in making the compression collar apparatus easily removably engagable to the article while the same time providing a secure axial stop upon the article for manual grasping, plus given the wide variance in article sizes for the compression collar apparatus to deal with. The articles come in a wide variety of sizes which may or may not necessarily be circumferentially round meaning they could be rectangular, square, elliptical, semicircular, and the like, thus further in measuring in a dimension perpendicular to an article longitudinal axis, the article can have this dimension varying, in other words the article can have a taper being similar to a frustroconical shape, all of which complicates designing for a secure and easy removable engagement of the compression collar apparatus to the article, while the same time providing a secure axial stop upon the article for a user to place their manual grasping against. Ideally, the compression collar apparatus provides a mechanism to accommodate the customization of the use of the article in providing a selectable gripping point that is optimum for that particular user.
In looking at the prior art in this area, in U.S. Pat. No. 7,169,069 to Dalton, et al., disclosed is an adjustable collar for attachment around a handle such as the handle of a baseball bat. The adjustable collar in Dalton has a rubber-like strip which has a strap affixed to its outer face. The strap in Dalton extends past the rubber strip and has a ring at one end and a free end at the other end. The rubber-like strip in Dalton is pressed against the place on the handle where it is desired to be attached and the free end is passed through the ring and is looped back toward the free end and affixed to the strap by a hook and loop fastener or other removably engagable fastening structure. Thus, Dalton essentially uses a flexible cloth hook and loop fastener to pull the collar tight about the baseball bat, resulting in a somewhat weaker collar compression about the bat that is not necessarily easily removably engagable.
Continuing in the prior art, in looking at U.S. Pat. No. 6,243,924 to Washburn, Jr., disclosed is an artificial bat end device for temporarily adjusting the length of a bat by using an adjustable ring having a thickness sufficient to simulate the butt end of a bat with the ring, also having the capability to conform to the handle of a bat and be forcibly held in place on the bat's handle. In Washburn Jr., again a hook and loop fastener is used having the same disadvantages as Dalton with the weak retention and non-easily removably engagable attachment, as indicated in FIG. 1, with multiple collars used to move the axial stop away from the butt end of the bat, as the collars brace as against one another and ultimately against the butt end of the bat for the manual grasping by the user.
Next, in the prior art in U.S. Pat. No. 3,469,839 to Pietronuto, et al., disclosed an adjustable bat choke having the characteristics of a bat end comprising a strong flexible body, including a central opening adapted to fit around a bat handle, a cleavage line providing a discontinuity in the bat choke extending through the bat choke's length, a knob portion at one end of said bat choke adapted to simulate a bat knob, and a gripping means adapted to maintain the bat choke on the bat handle at optionally selected positions. In Pietronuto, the gripping means includes a spring confined internally within the body of the flexible bat choke, wherein the bat choke internal diameter also has a high friction surface to help grip the bat, however, the bat choke depending upon the taper of the bat to give the bat choke added frictional gripping power, as the bat choke is a single annular piece flexible shaped element.
Further, in the prior art in United States Patent Application Publication Number 2001/0031674 to McGinnis disclosed is a Baseball Bat Choke-Up Device which includes a C-shaped ring with a hollow center cavity that runs longitudinally through the device. The C-shaped ring in McGinnis has both interior and exterior wall surfaces, wherein the interior wall surface encircles and engages the handle portion of a baseball bat. The C-shaped ring in McGinnis can be separated longitudinally, allowing the Baseball Bat Choke-Up Device to be placed tightly into the desired position around the handle portion of a baseball bat. The C-shaped ring in McGinnis may be secured firmly in place with a hook and loop-type fastener which extends from one side of the longitudinal split to the other, however, having similar problems as previously discussed in Dalton and Washburn Jr., all as having the weak retention and non-easily removably engagable attachment of a hook and loop fastener.
Continuing, in the prior art, for U.S. Pat. No. 5,624,114 to Kelsey disclosed is a resiliently compressible and stretchable sleeve has an opening at one end that is adapted to closely fit around a handle of a baseball bat, and an interior adapted to closely fit around an enlarged end knob which terminates at the handle. The sleeve in Kelsey is positioned to cover the end knob to cushion the batter's hand from vibrations in the end knob and the sleeve can be readily removed from and replaced on the bat. One or more Kelsey sleeves, each having a hole extending completely through it, can be positioned on the handle of the bat to provide a reference for gripping the handle away from the end knob. Thus, Kelsey is a lot like Washburn Jr., in using multiple axially stackable collars as against the butt knob end of the baseball bat to achieve the desired axial stop point for the “choke up” point, with each individual sleeve having minimal axial grip as against the baseball bat via utilizing the butt knob end of the baseball bat as the ultimate axial stop for all of the multiple sleeves.
What is needed is an adjustable article choke constructed partially of flexible material wherein the adjustable choke is easily removably engagable to a variety of article or bat sizes, wherein the adjustable choke or as termed compression collar apparatus securely axially grips the article or bat to provide a firm axial stop for the manual grasping of the article by the user.